I. Technical Field
This invention relates to equipment for use on a flat bed truck for handling large bales of hay. The invention provides an improved low profile flush-mounted bale loader for moving bales onto and off of a flat bed truck, the system being unique in the manner in which the lifting equipment is stowed when not in use so as to leave the bed of the truck unobstructed.
II. Prior Art
A common means of gathering a hay crop after it has been cut in the field for preserving the hay for animal feed is to roll the hay into large round bales. These bales are typically up to five feet in diameter and length. Round bales of hay may weigh as much as 1500 pounds. Whereas in the past, hay was typically baled in square bales and tied with wire or other kind of twine, the most frequent practice today is the use of large round bales. One of the great advantages is that they shed themselves of water and therefore can be left in the field, that is, they do not have to be moved into a storage shed as do square bales. Further, round bales can be easily fed to livestock by unrolling the bales by rolling them across a feed area.
A disadvantage of large round bales is that they cannot be lifted manually and, therefore, power equipment is required for transporting and handling of large round bales.
The basic concept of using power equipment for handling round bales has been described, such as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,958,772 and 3,952,895. Soon after round bales became popular others devised concepts for the use of farm-type pickup trucks for handling the bales, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,090,624; 4,044,963 and 4,298,301.
Equipment that can be adapted to a flat bed truck in a way so that it will not interfere with the normal use of the flat bed truck is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,564,325 entitled "Flush Mounted Round Bale Mover For Truck Beds". This patent provides a system that preserves a flat bed truck for its normal use but requires the creation of clearance slots in the upper surface of the truck bed. The clearance slots receive the arms of the bale lift mechanism. Providing clearance slots in the surface of a truck bed is time consuming and expensive. In addition, the system of this invention that employs clearance slots requires the bale piercing spindles that are affixed to the outer ends of the lifting arms to be removed so that the arms can fit into clearance slots. This means that each time the lifting apparatus has to be used, the operator must actuate the mechanism to move the arms out of the clearance slots after which the lifting spindles are manually attached for use in moving a bale. Before the lifting arms can be moved back into the stowed position in the clearance slots, the piercing spindles must again be removed.
The invention described herein provides a system for use with a flat bed truck wherein the lifting arms are stowed against the outer sides of a flat bed truck eliminating the need for forming clearance slots in the truck bed. Further, by storing the arms along the outer edges of a flat bed truck the piercing spindles or bale spikes do not have to be removed since they can extend in horizontal openings formed in the truck bed side edges.